Standard Chartered Sees Ethena's ENA Token Outperforming Bitcoin and Ethereum by 2028
Standard Chartered has published its findings on Ethena's ENA token, predicting it could outperform both Bitcoin and Ethereum by 2028. The bank initiated coverage of $ENA with a $2 year-end 2028 target, up from about $0.28 currently. It forecasts the token reaching $0.42 at the end of 2026 and $1.10 in 2027 before accelerating further the following year.
The bank's thesis rests on Ethena finding new sources of yield as returns from its original crypto trading strategy decline, while generating enough revenue from a much larger USDe base to make ENA increasingly valuable to holders.
Ethena first needs to rebuild USDe, which became one of the fastest-growing stablecoins after launching in late 2023. The protocol's synthetic-dollar business has been shrinking, with USDe supply falling by more than half from its peak. Standard Chartered estimates Ethena's blended yield across its strategies is now about 5.2%.
The bank expects tokenized assets, including stablecoins and other real-world assets, to reach about $4 trillion by the end of 2028 from roughly $350 billion currently. It projects real-world assets deployed on blockchains could rise from about $40 billion to $2 trillion over the same period.
A larger tokenized-asset market would give Ethena more collateral and yield opportunities beyond crypto derivatives, potentially allowing USDe to expand without requiring another period of exceptionally high perpetual-futures funding rates. However, Standard Chartered notes that Ethena must first cross several nearer-term checkpoints before the $2 target becomes relevant.